(Lotus F1 Team)
The Lotus F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean was drove the E23 for
the first time today as the final day of the opening winter test got underway
at the Jerez circuit in Spain. The Enstone based outfit managed to complete
three days of running after missing the opening day.
(Lotus F1 Team)
Grosjean completed 53 laps and ended the day in sixth place
with a fastest time of 1m 23.802s before the team encountered a problem with
the Mercedes power unit which meant that they were forced to cut short their
day and headed home early. Speaking following his first day in the new car,
Romain Grosjean stated:
'My first impressions of the E23 Hybrid are good. Both the Power Unit and the chassis are going in the right direction. I completed over fifty laps today and I can honestly say that all of them were enjoyable to drive. The team has made very good progress if you consider where we were this time last year. It’s a very good start and I’m a happy driver.'
(Lotus F1 Team)
Despite their early end to testing, over the course of the
three days they were on track the Lotus F1 Team managed to complete a total of 190
laps giving them valuable data and insight into the new Mercedes power unit.
Speaking following the test Technical Director Nick Chester stated:
'Even though it’s been an early end to our final day of running in Jerez, we’ve made fantastic progress over the past few days. We fired up the E23 Hybrid for the first time at Enstone last Saturday night, ran it for the first time on Monday, then completed a very useful haul of laps over the course of the test.
(Lotus F1 Team)
Both Romain and Pastor have declared themselves happy with the car and we have a clear direction for future developments. Today we finished early as analysis of Power Unit running data suggested a problem was developing. The Power Unit will now return to Brixworth for a full investigation. We have a busy week ahead of us at Enstone to make further progress with the E23 and we’re particularly looking forward to the next test in Barcelona.'
(Lotus F1 Team)
© Ben Johnston 2015
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